Chicken Dum Biryani

Chicken Dum Biryaniis cooked with basmati rice and chicken and is named as dum biryani because it is cooked on low heat (dum) to get all flavours oozed out of spices into rice and chicken. Dum Biryanis were originally made in the kitchens of Mughal Emperors, so mainly considered as a part of Andhra region of India (Hyderabadi cuisine) and no wonder that Hyderabadi biryanis are world famous biryanis. I totally relish the taste of a good biryani, and I was introduced and pampered to the taste of authentic biriyani by two of my very close friends and then I tried out their recipe with fusion of my own learnings. Continue reading for step by step recipe of this chicken dum biryani.

Preparation Time : 30 mins

Cooking Time : 1.5 – 2 hours

Marination Time : overnight

Serving : 12 to 15

Chicken Dum Biryani Recipe

I do hope that I am able to do justice to biriyani with this recipe.The cool part in making dum biryani is, when you are dumming the biryani, your house will be full of wonderful aroma, and when you open the biryani it smell like heaven which gives you a feeling which can’t be described in words.

I am giving out the detailed recipe, however you may decide to change it to your needs, especially the marination time.

Biryani Masala – 1.5 tablespoon (you can use any brand biryani masala, in my case i used Shan biryani masala.)

Salt – 1 teaspoon or as per your taste

Coriander leaves – 1/2 cup chopped finely

Mint Leaves – 1/3 cup chopped finely

Green Chillies – 2-3(Optional)

Lemon Juice – 1 tablespoon

Cardamom powder – 1 teaspoon

Oil – 3/4 cup

For Rice preparation:

Basmati Rice – 1 kg (You can use other rice as well, however for best results please use basmati/ long grain rice)

Bay leaves – 3-4

Cloves – 4-5

Whole black pepper – 7-8

Star Anise seeds – 2-3

Black Cardamom / Badi elaichi – 3-4

Salt – 1.5 teaspoon

Oil – 3 tablespoon

Turmeric powder – 1teaspoon

Orange food colour – 1 teaspoon

For layering of biryani

Onion – 2 large thinly sliced

Saffron – few strands

Warm Milk – 1/4 cup

Coriander leaves – 1/4 cup finely chopped

Mint Leaves – 1/3 cup finely chopped

Clarified butter / Desi ghee – 1 tablespoon

Kewra water – 2 tablespoon

Cashew : 10 split (optional)

Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani

Recipe:

Marination: First of all thinly slice the onion from marination ingredients (listed above) and deep fry them in the oil, taking them out on a kitchen towel. Wash the chicken thoroughly and keep aside. Take a mixing bowl and add all the ingredients from marination category listed above. Crush those fried onions with the help of your hand and mix it in the marination. Add remaining oil (left after frying onion) to the bowl and add chicken and mix it with the marination properly and cover the bowl with cling film and keep in the refrigerator overnight. (You can do it for shorter duration, however longer you keep it, better the taste).

Wash and soak basmati rice for an hour. Soak saffron strands in the warm milk and deep fry those onion which are listed in layering ingredients.

Cooking Chicken: Take a kadhai / pan and keep it on medium flame. Transfer the marinated chicken to this kadhai and add 1.5 cup of water. Cover it with lid and let it cook for 10 minutes. You can also cook chicken in the same pot in which you are planning to make biryani. After 10 minutes, check the chicken. If it is little soft and tender switch off the flame otherwise cook for another few minutes.

Preparing Rice: Now lets start boiling rice. I divided rice in three parts (colors: Yellow, Orange and White) driven purely by my desire to make my biriyani little colorful. Based on your choice, you can colour rice in different colour or you can make biryani with white rice only. I made orange colour rice with edible orange food colour, yellow colour rice with turmeric and plain white rice. Similarly I divided all the whole spices for rice preparation in three parts.

To make yellow rice: Take 4 cups of water and bring to boil, add little salt. now add in one part of drained (already soaked) rice, turmeric powder, 1 tablespoon oil and one part of whole spices and cook it for 5 to 7 mins till rice are 90 percent done. Drain the rice and keep aside. Yellow colour rice are ready now. Similarly make orange colour rice and white plain rice.

Layering the Biryani: first of all grease the Biryani pot with 1 tablespoon ghee and transfer the chicken to it. Now spread yellow rice over it and top it with fried onions, chopped coriander and mint leaves, saffron milk. Now spread Orange colour rice and top it again with fried onions, chopped mint and coriander leaves and saffron milk. Now spread white rice over it and finish layering by topping it with the rest of fried onions, chopped mint, cashews and coriander and saffron milk. Add kewra water to it. Cover the entire pot with foil or tea towel and cover with lid. Place it on medium flame for 5-7 minutes and then let it cook on a very very low flame for 35 to 40 minutes.

Now remove the tea towel,lid and fluff the rice carefully.

Serve Hot and enjoy with Onion Raita.

Chicken Dum Biryani Recipe | Your Food Fantasy

Key Notes:

Soaking rice and marinating chicken is very important, so never skip it. if you can’t marinate chicken overnight then do it for atleast 3 hours otherwise biryani will not come out perfect. Also, always use good quality basmati rice for biryani. I use grand tilda biryani special rice.

Cooking rice perfectly is also very important. If you over cook it, then the rice will stick to each other and it will result in mushy Biryani. So always check the rice once they start boiling. It takes around 5-6 minutes to get them cooked after putting them in boiling water.

It would be useful if you use a big wide open pan or handi to make Biryani as it would be easier to do layering in it and when you take the biryani out from pot to serve, you can easily reach to the bottom with a single scoop.